News for the kids, by the kids

Wednesday

Dec 31, 2008 at 12:01 AMDec 31, 2008 at 4:18 PM

Members of the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School (MVMMS) news team had to scramble on a recent Monday morning when breaking news usurped their previously planned story list. The weekend snowstorms on Dec. 19 and 21 became the lead story for the broadcast on Monday, Dec, 22, bumping footage from the recent Drama Club talent show

Daniel DeMaina / ddemaina@cnc.com

Members of the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School (MVMMS) news team had to scramble on a recent Monday morning when breaking news usurped their previously planned story list.

The weekend snowstorms on Dec. 19 and 21 became the lead story for the broadcast on Monday, Dec, 22, bumping footage from the recent Drama Club talent show. Also, due to the two-hour delayed opening, the students of the newly formed Broadcast Club had to update the script with the day’s shortened class schedule.

Such on the spot decisions are part of the learning experience that comes with producing live news broadcasts, according to MVMMS Principal and Lead Anchor Tom Brow. Viewed each morning at 7:40 a.m. in homeroom classes on the school’s SMART Board interactive whiteboards, the broadcasts — which began on Dec. 4 — replace the traditional morning announcements made over the school’s public address system, with students running the broadcast themselves.

“There’s actually some production going on here,” Brow said. “There’s planning, production, editing, and the day before we put the script up.”

That Monday morning’s plans went awry due to the 20 inches of snow that piled up on the previous Friday and Sunday. The production team had to rewrite a portion of the script and replaced the previously scheduled Drama Club talent show footage with photos of the snow outside the school that Brow took Monday morning. Brow had to ad lib when he noticed, mid-broadcast, that the shortened class schedule, resulting from the morning’s two-hour delay, wasn’t reflected in the script.

“Right in the middle of it, I caught myself,” he said with a chuckle. “So there’s some neat things happening here … there’s a lot of critical thinking, decision making and problem solving right on the spot.”

While Brow is the sole anchor, after the winter break he hopes to have a guest student anchor, and eventually having two students serve as co-anchors. The students who are members of the Broadcast Club already have plenty to do, though.

Students helm the two cameras used to shoot the broadcast, while one student cues graphics and other footage in real-time on video editing software and another controls the audio, switching between Brow — sitting in the anchor seat — and whatever footage is currently playing.

On the broadcast Monday, Dec. 22, seventh grader Hunter Clooney cues the American Flag graphic at the start of the broadcast for the Pledge of Allegiance. After the Pledge and Brow’s initial greeting, the show moves on to the snowstorm.

John Muldoon, sixth grade geography teacher and the Broadcast Club’s faculty advisor, gives Clooney a silent hand signal, cuing him to bring up the snow photographs Brow shot that morning. Clooney clicks through each photo in succession before switching back to Brow at the news desk.

When Brow mentions the school’s recent holiday concert featuring students in the middle school orchestra and chorus. Clooney switches to the recorded footage while eighth grader Ben DiMattia controls the sound. Meanwhile, eighth graders Sean Pelrine and Sarah Graham operate the in-studio cameras.

The staff at Melrose, Mass. TV (MMTV) donated the equipment to allow the students to create the broadcast, Brow said, and spent the first week at the school to help train Brow, Muldoon and the students. Brow said the students caught on quickly.

“We’ve only been doing it for a week and a half and they’re wizards at it already,” he said. “And we’ve all been learning. I’ve been learning how to do the editing too, and the camera shots. It’s neat stuff.”

Students interested in video find new outlet

The six students, who all became involved with the broadcast in different ways, displayed more modesty when asked about their learning curve in producing a live television show.Clooney was waiting after school one day when he noticed the new studio being set up next to the main office and asked if he could check it out, leading him to join the Broadcast Club. He said the video editing software is “kind of basic,” but there was still a learning curve.

“It was hard at first to know how to bring [videos] up at the right time, and we have to use signals so we know when to talk and not to talk,” he said.

DiMattia was actually substituting on Monday morning for fellow eighth grader Innocent Asia — who usually handles sound and was a special guest on the first broadcast, performing a vocal medley — and said he usually helms one of the cameras, since he enjoys making videos at home and posting them online on his own Web site.

“Making videos, uploading them and editing them is very fun,” he said.

Perline regularly controls the lights for productions in the MVMMS auditorium, making him a natural selection for Brow, who approached him at lunch about joining the broadcast team.

“The cameras were pretty easy once you knew how to zoom and focus at the same time,” Perline said. “Putting on the overlays, which is the names [on the video editing software], was kind of hard because it was the first time using that thing. The person who trained us was using it for the first time too, so we basically learning with him, but it’s still pretty fun to play around.”

Graham had filmed the recent talent show and edited it, making her another obvious selection for the team. She said she has been making videos for the past two years, both on her own and for school.

“When you first do it you get nervous — a few problems could ruin the whole thing — but it was easier than I thought it was when I did the transitions and stuff,” she said.

Brow said after winter break, he hopes to offer other students the chance to participate in the broadcast’s production.

“What makes it neat is every morning they get to see something that has happened in the school or something live — for example, this morning the snowstorm,” he said. “There are a number of skills that the students are developing. They’re developing video editing skills, speaking skills, problem solving skills and critical thinking skills.”